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REACHING FOR ZERO: The Citizens Plan for Zero Waste in New York City A “Working Document” 1st Version By Resa Dimino and Barbara Warren New York City Zero Waste Campaign and Consumer Policy Institute / Consumers Union June 2004 Consumer Policy Institute New York City Zero Waste Campaign Consumers Union c/o NY Lawyers for the Public Interest 101 Truman Ave. 151 West 30th Street, 11th Floor Yonkers, NY 10703-1057 New York, New York 10001 914-378-2455 212-244-4664 The New York City Zero Waste Campaign was first conceived at the 2nd National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in October of 2002, where City activists were confronted with the ongoing concerns of other Environmental Justice communities that would continue to be burdened with the high volume of waste being exported from NYC. As a result of discussion with various activists in the City and elsewhere, a diverse group of environmental, social justice and neighborhood organizations came together to begin the process of planning for Zero Waste in NYC. A series of principles were initially drafted to serve as a basis for the entire plan. It is the Campaign’s intent to expand discussions about the Zero Waste goal and to gain broad support for the detailed plan. The Consumer Policy Institute is a division of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. The Institute was established to do research and education on environmental quality, public health and economic justice and other issues of concern to consumers. The Consumer Policy Institute is funded by foundation grants, government contracts, individual donations, and by Consumers Union. Copyright ! 2004 by Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Resa Dimino has worked as program director at Bronx 2000, a community based development organization dedicated to affordable housing, neighborhood economic development, community- based enterprise and environmentalism. She has worked as an Environmental Analyst for Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr., and his predecessor Fernando Ferrer. She is a member of the board of directors of the Grassroots Recycling Network (GRRN). GRRN is a network of waste reduction activists and recycling professionals with pragmatic experience in implementing successful programs and operations. GRRN’s mission is to eliminate the waste of natural and human resources -- to achieve Zero Waste -- utilizing classic activist strategies to achieve corporate accountability for waste as well as public policies to eliminate waste and build sustainable communities. She co-authored and edited a quarterly newsletter, Wastelines, and several short, issue-specific research papers, including Paper Recycling: Capturing the High Grades and Paved with Good Intentions: Beyond Burning Tires, which was published in Resource Recycling Magazine in 1994. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She holds a gubernatorial appointment to the New York State Solid Waste Management Board. She is currently working as the Bronx River Greenway Coordinator for the newly formed Bronx River Alliance. Barbara Warren, Director of the New York Project at the Consumer Policy Institute/ Consumers Union, has been involved in waste management issues since 1980. She has worked to defeat municipal waste incinerators locally and nationally and to close the Fresh Kills landfill. She also worked on the Recycle First Alternative Plan. She has served on the Citywide Recycling Advisory Board and she was appointed by Mayor Giuliani to the Fresh Kills Closure Task Force. In 1996 she helped establish the Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods (OWN) and authored Taking Out The Trash: A New Direction for New York City’s Waste. She continues to work with OWN as a technical advisor. She received her MS degree in Environmental Health Science from Hunter College and has received numerous environmental awards. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report and the campaign for Zero Waste would not have been possible without the efforts of many people who have worked to improve solid waste management policy in New York City over many years. The current effort involved many individuals and organizations who participated in campaign meetings over the course of eight months and contributed valuable ideas and insights to produce this Citizens Plan for Zero Waste in New York City. We would particularly like to thank the Natural Resources Defense Council for providing meeting space for the campaign. We are grateful for the assistance of Shannon Stone, who served as secretary. Sincere appreciation goes to those individuals who contributed so much of their time to prepare sections of the report and to assist with editing--Dr. Marjorie Clarke, MaryEllen Etienne, Timothy JW Logan, Christine Datz-Romero, and Christina Hemphill. We were also glad to have Sandra Robishaw and John Culpepper assisting the campaign with education and outreach. David Wood, of the GrassRoots Recycling Network, provided valuable contacts and information to the authors. We are grateful for the efforts of the Zero Waste Campaign’s Committee chairpersons. Many thanks go to our peer reviewers for carefully reading our drafts and bringing their views and experience to the task--Gary Liss, Rick Anthony, Steve Hammer and Michael Schedler. Appreciation goes to the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance for embarking on this Zero Waste Campaign and to the Municipal Art Society for hosting a legislative breakfast--a “Zero Waste” event--for the release of this report, so that we are able to share our findings. At the production end of this report, many deserve thanks--Jean Halloran and Robbin Blaine for editing, Toni Rabin and Dana Schifman, particularly for their computer skills and organizational abilities. Then there is Urvashi Rangan, who generously allowed us to kidnap her valuable staff assistant, Dana, for almost two weeks. Without our funders, none of this would be possible. We would like to thank the Scherman Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, New York Community Trust, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation for making the Citizens Plan for Zero Waste a reality. We are also grateful to the funders who have enabled a number of the participants to do the work they do each and every day. ZERO!WASTE!CAMPAIGN!LEADER:!Timothy!J.W.!Logan! COMMITTEES AND CHAIRPERSONS Waste Prevention/Reuse Joint Committee: MaryEllen Etienne, Reuse Alliance, & Dr. Marjorie Clarke, NYC Waste Prevention Coalition Composting Committee: Christine Datz-Romero, Lower Eastside Ecology Center Education & Outreach Committee: John Culpepper, Lower Washington Heights Neighborhood Association, & Sandra Robishaw, Astoria Residents Reclaiming Our World, ARROW Transportation Committee: Christina Hemphill, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, & Ramon Cruz, Environmental Defense Reaching for Zero: The Citizens Plan for Zero Waste in New York City TABLE OF CONTENTS About the Authors iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents v Executive Summary vii Visions of Zero Waste around the World ix I. Overview Overview 3 Summary of Milestones to Achieve Zero Waste in 2024 23 II. Pieces of Zero Chapter 1. Waste Prevention 35 Chapter 2. Reuse 51 Chapter 3. Recycling 65 Chapter 4. Composting 85 III. Getting to Zero Chapter 5. Economic Development 105 Chapter 6. Education 113 Chapter 7. Enforcement 123 Chapter 8. Transportation 131 Chapter 9. Financing 145 Chapter 10. Legislation and Regulation 161 Chapter 11. Research and Data Gathering 175 Appendices Appendix A: Participating Individuals and Organizations 189 Appendix B: Guiding Principles for the Citizens Plan for Zero Waste 191 REACHING FOR ZERO: THE CITIZENS PLAN FOR ZERO WASTE IN NEW YORK CITY Executive Summary With close to 8 million residents and over 12 million people during a workday when commuters are in the City, New York City produces enormous amounts of waste. New York has thousands of businesses, hundreds of institutions like museums, colleges and universities, and a large number of City, state and federal agencies. So when NYC generates waste it is not just at home, it is on the way to work or school, in public transportation, while visiting government agencies, while shopping at stores and supermarkets, or while at work or play at many of New York City’s recreational facilities, such as parks, zoos, and sports venues. The City generates 13,000 tons per day of trash and recyclables from the residential and institutional sectors and 9,900 tons per day of putrescible trash—food scraps, dirty paper, and recyclable containers-- from the commercial sector. Commercial construction and demolition debris and fill material are generated in even larger quantities. Since the announcement in 1997 that the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, which had previously taken all the City’s waste, would be closed, the City has maintained almost an exclusive focus on exporting waste out of the City to distant landfills and incinerators as the solution to its waste management problems. The costs of waste export to the City are enormous and have risen 91% since 2000 so that they are now over $100 a ton. Following the announcement of the Fresh Kills closure, the City Council and planning committees in the offices of each Borough President made extensive recommendations about how the City should handle its waste. The recommendations, while differing on details, spoke to the need for the City to reduce or prevent waste, to recycle more, to create a larger reuse network, and to compost organic waste. To a large extent, these recommendations have been ignored. Reaching for Zero: The Citizens Plan for Zero Waste seeks to alter New York City’s current course. Reaching for Zero proposes a plan for reducing New York City’s waste exports to very close to zero in 20 years, through a combination of waste prevention, reuse, recycling and composting. This plan will not only reduce and ultimately eliminate the crushing expense of waste exports from the City, but it will also keep dollars spent on waste management circulating within the City’s economy, creating industry and jobs here rather than shipping our dollars along with our waste to out of state locations.